Raid Rx: Welcome to heroic Icecrown Citadel
by Matt Low 
Aug 12th 2010 at 7:00PM
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. If you're looking for more healing advice, check out the Plus Heal community.
Now that you've taken down the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel on normal mode, what's next? The heroic versions of the bosses, of course! You're ready for the next step. Plus with the 30 percent buff active, you'll have a bit more breathing room and leeway. This week, I'll give you a quick walkthrough on all of the bosses in terms of healing expectations.
Except maybe the Lich King. Haven't quite solved him yet, and the guy is worth a post of his own in the future.
Lord Marrowgar
I like to utilize a triangle setup on this boss during his Bone Storm phase. By placing the raid in three isolated groups apart from each other, you'll make the old bone lord travel more. The more he travels, the more time he eats up during this phase when he isn't destroying someone. Group your tanks as one unit and divide your raid (and healers) evenly into two others. Your tanks won't be in jeopardy, anyway.
You know it's over when: It takes 16.9 seconds to break you out of a Bone Spike. Seriously, if you can keep someone alive through that with multiple Coldflames searing through him, you deserve a medal.
Lady Deathwhisper
Two main obstacles in this encounter are the mind controls and the ghosts. Once your crowd control becomes trained to the point that they can snap crowd control, you'll be in good shape for the first half of the fight. The second half is the one that really gets to you. You might be able to survive a single Vengeful Blast from a ghost explosion, but it's almost impossible to survive two. I can't stress how important it is to dodge ghosts. Keep your raid-wide cooldowns ready though in the event someone gets clipped by one.
You know it's over when: That one rogue gets mind-controlled and he doesn't get crowd-controlled. Guess who he goes after? You. Before you know it, you're on the ground wondering what happened and why there wasn't a Cyclone up from a nearby druid.
Gunship Battle
The heroic version isn't any different than normal. You have to try to wipe on this encounter. Enjoy your free heroic Althor's Abacus! If you want to have a bit of fun, though, keep your tank on the opposing gunship and have him stay there. See how many stacks of Battle Fury Muradin or Saurfang can build up before your tank dies. Right now, the record for us is 61 stacks.
You know it's over when: Half the raid AFKs watching videos on YouTube, checking their email or reading their favorite blogs.
Deathbringer Saurfang
If your raid has difficulty finding room to spread out, you can park a few healers within the melee group. Priests would be a good choice due to their ability to Fade. Assign a specific list of healers for Mark of the Fallen Champion as it comes out. This can be a tough healing fight depending on the rate at which those marks come out. Don't forget that a single paladin can keep two marked players alive on his own with Beacon of Light.
You know it's over when: There are no hunters to drop slowing traps and the Blood Beasts rocket out of the gate, charging you down, because you just hit a big critical heal on the tank.
Festergut
The big difference here is that the professor likes to throw Malleable Goo from the ledge. With that in mind, instead of tanking him in the middle, tank Festergut against the wall farthest away from the platform to maximize the amount of time people have to spot for the green pool. It took me a few attempts to spot it. As a healer, though, you might be better off healing backward so that you can see where the bouncing goo is going.
You know it's over when: Players run towards the green ooze puddle on the ground thinking it grants them a buff. Sorry to disappoint, but no, it doesn't!
Rotface
Depending on the number of ranged players you have, you might need to park a few healers outside of the middle area. If there aren't enough people "soaking" the Vile Gas that Professor Putricide throws around, he'll target the melee instead. When we do this, I like to keep paladins and shaman in the middle; druids and priests are free to run around on the outside. You'll want to get your middle healers to remove the Mutated Infection (since they'll be able to hit anyone at range).
You know it's over when: OH NO! GETTING OVERWHELMED WITH SLIMES! I CAN'T DISPEL FAST ENOUGH! AUGH!
Professor Putricide
Healing this encounter can either be really easy or really difficult. The problem is that you don't really have control over it. It's up to the rest of the raid to not get hit by Malleable Goo. Believe me when I say it ends up being one of the most frustrating things in the world watching someone gets nailed by two of them at the same time. I only just got this guy down last week on 25. It took a lot of time and practice.
You know it's over when: Players with the Unbound Plague start panicking and chaining it all over the place. Deep breaths, stay calm and have an exit strategy. Oh yeah, bouncing green balls of slime are bad.
Blood Princes Council
Some fancy positioning work will need to be done. Position your healers in such a way that they can cover the most area across the room. You are allowed to move around a bit if you need. Pay special attention to the tank on Kelseth, in case that person is behind on resistance. Do your part to keep Kinetic Bombs in the air if you notice one near you (until another player can take over).
You know it's over when: Empowered Shock Vortex is about to hit and you're surrounded on all sides. Hope you're a paladin with a free bubble.
Blood Queen Lana'thel
Lana'thel does the same things on heroic as she does on normal; the difference is that she hits much harder. Highlight moments will be when she goes into the air phase. Keep a priest handy to fire off a Mass Dispel to remove Fear when she takes to the air. With two air phases, you'll want to stagger your cooldowns. I place a druid in each group for Tranquility. On the first air phase, I use a raid-wide Divine Sacrifice from a paladin and a Divine Hymn from a priest. On the second air phase, everyone fires off survival cooldowns (Ice Block, Deflection and whatever cooldowns haven't been used yet).
You know it's over when: Someone gets mind-controlled due to a missed bite early in the encounter.
Valithria Dreamwalker
I like to overload the portal realm with four healers. It'll be up to your DPS on the outside to keep suppressors to a minimum and interrupt Frostbolt Volleys. It'll drain 2,000 mana if it connects (and yes, that hurts the outside healers if left unchecked). Portal team, gather up as many Twisted Nightmares as possible (and make sure you keep yourselves alive in the process). They don't respawn, but do your best to time it so that you don't lose the stacks. Other than these points, this encounter is the same as normal! Hope you can spot the red portals, since there aren't any lines that lead to them.
You know it's over when: Players have trouble focus-firing or interrupting.
Sindragosa
I've only managed to do this encounter successfully on 10-man. Designate specific positions for healers to go to when they gain Unchained Magic; you really don't want that going off in the raid. I've also been advised to bring a whopping eight (eight) healers. If it normally takes you five healers to keep the raid alive, then that's the minimum you need. Three healers will always get locked out by that debuff, anyway. Work on the line of sight, too.
You know it's over when: People can't dodge Frost Bombs. Good game.
Lich King
I got nothing. You're on your own for this one. If you have done it on heroic, I'd love to hear from you, as I'm about to get there fairly soon.
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Need raid or guild healing advice? Email me at matticus@wow.com and you could see a future post addressing your question. Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column, Ready Check.Filed under: Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
shadowhowl1900 Aug 12th 2010 7:12PM
i was hoping you would go more in dept for some of the more harder fights such as PP and sind but yeah that pretty much sums up most of them.
I would say its over for Princes when the keleseth is enrage and some1 AoEs the shadow balls all of the tank.
matthewggrammer Aug 13th 2010 12:26AM
"I would say its over for Princes when the keleseth is enrage and some1 AoEs the shadow balls all of the tank."
I do believe I scared my raid tonight when instead of my usual angry voice, I used my calm, super-pissed voice to remind the DPS that I'd fucking kill them if they stole another ball off me."
Leorad Aug 13th 2010 6:29PM
Couple things.
First, not all AoE is created equal. For example, consecration will not aggro a Dark Nucleus, but Hammer of Righteousness will. The difference is whether the ability chains or cleaves (bad, don't use it) or creates a true area of effect. Why in the world your DPS is using AoE abilities on a fight in which only one boss has health at a time is another issue.
Second, you cannot aggro the dark nuclei off a player. This misunderstanding is likely due to the fact that sometimes they will channel their shadow resistance ability on a character who is simply in range, with or without aggro. Those nuclei can be taken by the Keleseth tank. *Once they have TRUE aggro on someone, they will not leave.*
Valtuda Aug 12th 2010 7:21PM
Nice to see this all summed up. As guild leader of a small 10man guild currently progressing through heroics (7/12, hopefully more tomorrow), I still feel there is a lack of documentation on some hardmodes.
cidninja Aug 13th 2010 1:24PM
i dunno, they're honestly pretty straight forward. i thought the same thing as you when i first started doing heroics and i was actually really disappointed to find out they're mostly the same.
polar Aug 13th 2010 12:34AM
With regards to order in which to try heroics, try this advice (from GuildOx):
"25 man - Gunship Battle, Lord Marrowgar and Rotface are the entry level heroics. After that, try Blood Prince Council, Blood-Queen Lana'thel and Festergut.
10 man - Gunship Battle, Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper are the easier heroics. Saurfang and Rotface should be attempted next.
Professor Putricide and Sindragosa remain the most difficult of the heroic fights in both 10 and 25 forms. It is best to leave these until last."
http://www.guildox.com/go/g.asp?w=N&ID=102
Shinhan Aug 13th 2010 3:34AM
Also, on 25 Lady Deathwhisper is one of the hardest hard modes. Do it just before Putri/Sindra.
Scism Aug 13th 2010 7:14AM
Gotta agree with that (For 10 man). We're 9/12 10Hc with Putri and Sindy still to go. Once we had LK (which took about 40 attempts) it took a couple of weeks to gear up a bit more then we found Marrowgar and Gunship easy (with 15% buff). Now we find the first 7 a piece of cake (up to Dreamwalker) with Princes the hardest (BQL is easy...especially if you accidently have her on normal twice :( )
Putri and Sindy both seem doable, especially with 30% buff, but one mistake and its game over... :(
Maxpowr Aug 13th 2010 2:33AM
You missed a biggie Matt.
For Sindragosa, the bad caster/healer blowing up the raid with backlash. Even one tick of instability going off in phase 2 causes 8k+ damage/person in the raid. The fight tends to go downhill after that as you try to "whack the moles harder"
Shinhan Aug 13th 2010 3:33AM
As for Sindragosa, 8 healers is a must for first kill. Later bring less if you can, but you really need lotsa healers at the start.
Assign 3 healers to tanks, 3 healers to raid healing and last 2 healers to replace Unchained healers.
Run speed enchants and Body&Soul on Blistering Cold helps.
Last phase tombs have first one be near head (but not so near as to iceblock the tank) and next one near tail, and back again...
Also, about assigned Unchained positions. Dont, just dont. When someone gets unchained magic that person *must* stop casting. Because invariably that person gets pulled on blistering cold and blasts everyone and in p3 thats almost a guaranteed wipe. If you accidentaly get 1 stack of Instability go out of raid to drop it and then go back in to wand, but dont stay out casting.
Shinhan Aug 13th 2010 3:25AM
Healing LK25HC:
2 Disc priests (can be done with 1 disco, but 2 disc is easier)
1 Holy Paladin
other healers
Assign one of the other healers to dispell the Necrotic Plague.
Disc priests get assigned 2 groups to shield up, and share shielding of other 3 guys. No shields on tank, no shields on DPS that always overaggros. Point is to game the Rapture.
Holy Paladins stick to the tanks, of course.
Other healers also heal the tank with helping out after Infest leaves 2-3 guys infested. If going with less than 2 disc priests it might be useful to time the big aoe heals to land just after the Infest so you can remove the debuff quickly.
As for movement on p1, we usually split range DPS (and healers) in two groups with melee in the middle and range left and right. Start near stairs, move away from them as the Shadow Traps land.
p2 (first transition phase) just heal normally.
p3 we have a triangle. one point is near the stairs, other two are at 2 o clock and 10 o clock (if you consider the floor circle a clock and stairs at 12 o clock). Start at position one which is 10 o clock. Everybody stacks on top of tank there. Soon as the three Valkyrs grab people run from the stairs, nearer the edge to wait for Defile.
Dont forget to yell on vent if disc priest or holypala is grabbed. Also, not a healing thing, but assign the stuns and slows and replacements for when stunner gets picked up. And have the tank call for cooldowns when needed (good idea to arrange the CD rotation beforehand).
Anyway, soon as the defile is cast, defiled person runs to edge, other people run to the position 2 (2 o clock). Repeat as first valkyr, but be aware this time Defile comes right after the 3rd valkyr, defiled needs to quickly run toward the edge, away from stairs.
Move to 3rd position (on top of the iceblock, maybe 5 yards north), and have the defiled dropped on stairs.
Rinse and repeat. Watch LK's health to be near the edge on transition. Healers need to be especially careful as some people will get couple hits from remorseless winter.
This transition phase is same as previous one, bit more healing on tanks. Now is the time to blow your mana regen cooldowns and fill up in preparation for the last phase.
Soon as the p5 starts, begin HoTing and shielding everyone as you'll be teleported into the room soon after. Designate and mark the person with best situational awareness (but not a healer, he has too much work) to lead the group around in the room. Everybody stacks up on top of that person and follows him around. If the movement is precise and DPS is on the ball with killing souls, this shouldnt be too hard, but be sure to keep everyone HoTted, you *will* need to heal a lot in the room *and* move around a lot.
Once you'r out of the room, stack on the LK tank. No more Infest so everyone switch to healing tanks. This part is more complicated for tanking but pretty easy for healers. Soakers, frost traps, follow the LK tank, rinse and repeat.
Gratz on Invincible's Reins.
Terry Aug 13th 2010 5:01AM
For Heroic LK10, we did a disc priest on raid and a Holy pally on the tanks. We also had an elemental shaman doing the cleanses in phase 1 to help out the healers. In phase 2, the elemental shaman would start healing, if a healer got picked up as well. Phase 3 is sorta downhill but you just have to be ready to blow a cooldown on the spirit soaking tank. We had a boomkin that would also rejuv the raid inside the sword during phase 3 to help the disc priest out. We also had the boomkin and feral cat rolling innervates on the healers. The paladin would get low pretty often, amazingly enough.
Jen Aug 13th 2010 10:50AM
A question for the ones in the know: can we kill LK 10 heroic with a disc/holy priest and two resto druids? My boyfriend isn't very optimistic about it, but it's not like we can pick and choose, we run with a very small roster.
Terry Aug 13th 2010 7:36PM
The tanks take a severe pounding. The dps requirements are pretty high, too. If you guys are really good, you might be able to do it though :)
Janthu Aug 13th 2010 10:56AM
You might want to check your graphic settings because there are always spell effects connecting Dreamwalker to the portals even on Heroic.
You also have lots of flexibility with the number of healers in the portals. You can do it from 1 to 4 healers, but more then that is messy and will lead to lost stacks. Use Holy Paladins if possible because their tier 10 2 piece bonus abuses the mechanics of the fight.
Blacksen Aug 13th 2010 11:39AM
"You know it's over when: There are no hunters to drop slowing traps and the Blood Beasts rocket out of the gate, charging you down, because you just hit a big critical heal on the tank. "
Very wrong here... A lot of guilds use Shadowfury + Boomkin knockback. Hunter traps lead to major inefficiencies in DPS, and most hunters aren't at the spell-hit cap.
Firestyle Aug 13th 2010 11:47AM
Currently progressing on heroic 25 Sind, here's what we do that works:
6 healers, 2 priests disc/holy, 2 holy paladin, 1 resto shaman (me), 1 resto druid
Phase I and Phase II
1. healers with unchained magic move out of raid, continue to heal with debuff
Firestyle Aug 13th 2010 11:48AM
2. iceblocked people stack in pairs in 3 spots (triangle). Must be at full health with HoTs an shields to take double iceblock damage.
Phase III
1. no healing with debuff
2. 6 healers split into 2 teams for iceblock hiding to drop mystic buffet.
Goradan Aug 13th 2010 12:25PM
We're working on Putricide and Sindragosa on 10s. The difficulty scale seems a bit steep but I'm enjoying the new mechanics in old bosses.
Xalick Aug 13th 2010 1:03PM
I guess it depends partly on who are the stronger players in your raid. But my guild found Valithria to be one of the "entry level" hard modes. Three healers in the portal. But we had two holy paladins. We also 7 healed Sindragosa Hard Mode on our first kill.